It has been an uneven time in MLS. Lots of teams playing irregular schedules with irregular lineups. In some ways, we hesitate to put too much stock in what we have seen in MLS over the last month. Yes, clearly some teams have progressed and others regressed, but it will take both a deeper dive and time to tell whether the variables that are no longer going to be an issue going forward, especially absent players for national team duty, were a big part of the up and down fluctuations we have seen.

What we tried to do with this edition is kind of sum up where teams are over the last month with an eye towards where they will go. These are not projections, but the comments will raise some things to watch going forward.

Top Shelf

1 - Los Angeles Football Club (Previously 1). "Such an impressive team, and clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the league." Not only still true, but even more so. At some point, the better MLS teams will start seriously scouting how to beat LAFC, and there are likely solutions to be found, but by then the Supporters Shield may well and truly be gone - if it isn't already.

Quality

2 - San Jose Earthquakes (3). Other than an awful opening to the season, this has been one of the best teams in the league, and look to stay that way.

3 - NYCFC (5). "On one hand, the number of ties has to be concerning. On the other hand, the metrics showed that NYC is not as bad as their place in the standings would indicate." Narrator - they stopped tying games. We are still not ready to call it in the Lindstrom-Doyle Battle Royale* but wins against Philadelphia and Seattle are strong statements.

4 - Portland Timbers (9). Like San Jose, this team is significantly better than their early results show.

5 - Philadelphia Union (2). A mixed bag of results makes us think they are still good, but not as good as those now ahead of them. The tie to New England will look less bad as time goes on. Same for the loss at NYCFC. Tying Orlando at home? Hm...

6 - Seattle Sounders (6). The shine is off of the Sounders right now, but the danger remains.

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7 - Atlanta United (4). Falling back to the pack a little after Atlanta had rebounded from adjusting to a new coach and new system.

8 - FC Dallas (13). "It may not seem like much, but a road tie at San Jose is a very significant result. ...you have to wonder how they will respond to falling to the USL Championship side New Mexico United." Rather well, it seems. A big move, but justified by absolutely destroying Toronto and D.C., and really only a ten-minute lapse in focus cost them a third home win. And their loss at Portland? A lot of teams would love to only lose 1-0 to the Timbers on the road. If Pomykal can keep that engine revving at that level, they will be dangerous for quite some time. The only thing holding them back is one, maybe two, really dangerous attackers.

9 - D.C. United (7). "We just had more questions about D.C. than the teams now ahead of them." Appears the questions were justified. The loss to Dallas could have been a lot worse had the red originally shown to Rooney been upheld.

10 - LA Galaxy (11). "Considering their opponents, we are just struggling to put too much confidence in their numbers." But they keep putting up those numbers at a clip that is ahead of other teams.

11 - Toronto FC (10). This is still a team struggling to find its groove, but the talent is there to beat Atlanta. Until they get going, just be wary. But if they do, the talent is there to be top 5.

Middling

12 - Houston Dynamo (8). "With their Open Cup championship defense over, it will be interesting to see how they refocus and recharge." Or not. Four out of five games lost, including to Cincinnati? Yikes.

13 - Minnesota United (17). Another big mover, it will be interesting to see if this run continues, but The Loons really looked good lately.

15 - Real Salt Lake (16). This team appears to not be playing to its talent level.

16 - New York Red Bulls (15). "Two steps forward, one step back from Chris Armas and his team." A home win against the Fire, road loss to the Dynamo, and a tie at Atlanta. In other words, "Lather, rinse, repeat."

17 - New England Revolution (21). "We expect the Revolution to continue to improve over the rest of the season." And we are starting to see some real results. It is unclear whether the talent is there to get into the top half, but they are going to be much better than they were prior to Arena's arrival.

18 - Colorado Rapids (18). "Another win. This team is markedly improved. How high will they go? Hard to tell right now, but for now, definitely moving up." Then they go beat LAFC? Yeah, this team has turned the corner. Like the Revolution, it remains to be seen what their ceiling is based on their talent, but this team is playing well. Give Casey credit.

19 - Sporting Kansas City (14). This might be a bit harsh, but the wins are unconvincing and the losses are not good.

20 - Chicago Fire (22). Let's give them credit for a big win over Atlanta. Remember, it was 2-0 early before the red card. The other results were less impressive.

21 - Orlando City SC (19). They are fighting to be relevant, but just not having much success.

22 Vancouver Whitecaps (20). They are scrappers, to be sure, but a string of ties will not move you up.

Poor

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23 - FC Cincinnati (24). Nice win over Houston, relatively speaking.

24 - Columbus Crew (23). "Hopefully for Crew fans, Porter took advantage of the time to get ready for the meat of the MLS schedule." Sadly, no. This team has regressed. Maybe they can get back ahead of FCC, because they have more talent, but not if they keep losing like that.

(*) From time to time Kevin reviews other rankings after he has published the ones done for 3rd Degree. At the beginning of the season, he noticed that there were a lot of similarities to what Matt Doyle had written for MLSSoccer.com, but in one place, there was a significant difference - NYCFC. We will track this to see who was more right for as long as it is worth it. Recent results continue to be going in Kevin's favor.

3rd Degree is an independent, North Texas soccer blog with a focus on FC Dallas.(Buzz Carrick / 3rd Degree)

Kevin Lindstrom. An original fan of the Dallas Burn, Kevin began writing the original MLS Power Rankings for the team listserve in 1996 and was invited to write them for 3rd Degree soon thereafter.
His journalism career began at Texas A&M where he got a BS in Journalism. He has covered a wide array of stories, including the police beat for the Temple Daily Telegram to FC Dallas for MLSSoccer.com.